University

08/21/2014

Take Saybrook University courses - on Facebook

If you take a class in “Project X” here’s what you won’t have to do: buy textbooks, drive to class, or sit through a lecture.

Here’s what you will have to do: conduct a conversation, over Facebook, with a leading scholar about a subject in his field that’s keeping him up at night, and then work with your fellow students to advance our understanding of the issue.

It’s a whole new approach to graduate education – and all you need to participate is an internet connection.

Saybrook University has been a leading provider of graduate level distance learning for over 40 years. This semester sees the continuation of our highly successful “Project X” series.

But it’s not just the medium – Facebook – for an accredited graduate school course that’s different. The whole approach is different from other new efforts online learning. Where most online courses emphasize lectures – through text or video – Project X emphasizes discussion and relationship building. Where most online courses focus on teaching students what faculty already know, Project X is about collaboratively pushing the boundaries of knowledge in new directions.

This fall, Project X continues with three courses:

Poetry, Healing & Growth

Poetry has long been used as an important source for personal and collective healing and growth, as well as an expressive art, in many cultures of the world. As such, it can be considered one of the oldest healing arts. This course explores ways individuals can use poetry for their own healing and growth, as well as facilitating healing and growth in others. Students will develop the ability to cultivate their own practice of writing poetry as well as utilizing the poetry of others. It’s taught by Louis Hoffman, PhD, past President of the American Psychological Associations division on humanistic psychology.

Present Issues in Sustainability

This is the introductory course to the sustainability suite in the Organizational Systems Program. It is intended for all students wishing to pursue the implications for the present state of affairs around the world with respect to challenges to our global ecosystems and the consequences of social injustices for our collective future. The course explores the intricate links among economic activity, social dynamics and the natural environment. Students learn to describe ways in which organizations of all kinds can more effectively address these interactions. It’s taught by Kathia Laszlo, PhD, a Fulbright Scholar and co-founder of Syntony Quest, an international consultant to governments, businesses, and non-profits seeking sustainable solutions to common problems.

Sustainability& Organizational Systems

This course explores how students, as Organizational Systems professionals, can contribute meaningfully and significantly to the emergence of a sustainable and livable future for all. How to generate commitment based on hope rather than fear; how to facilitate collaboration across sectors and disciplines; how to generate a compelling vision of a common desirable future; how to translate this vision into action - these are some of the questions that we explore to support the design and implementation of systemic and radical sustainability initiatives. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an interdisciplinary learning experience and to guide them in developing the essential knowledge, skills and sensitivity for stimulating and guiding sustainability and social responsibility programs in organizations and communities of all kinds. It is also taught by Dr. Laszlo.

Plus, coming in January 2015:

Music, Health and Healing : Notes on the Key to Wellness.

Music may be one of the oldest forms of healthcare and yet we still have little understanding of the nature of music or its healing qualities. This course allows students to use their own experiences and the vast literature on the subject to gain greater understanding of the role music can play in maintaining and restoring health. It’s taught by Eric Wilmarth, PhD, a globally known leader in integrative health care and the past-president of the American Psychological Association’s division on medical hypnosis.